Clean Eating Menu Planner

I get a lot of emails from people asking about menu planning. What the best methods are, and how to get started keeping track of it all.

Admittedly, I do remember being overwhelmed in the beginning. There is so much new stuff to learn, labels to read and meals to plan that it’s easy to get lost in all of it. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

I’d like you to meet your own personal, clean eating menu planner! This little lady does all your work for you, and all for the price of a cheap recipe box from your local craft store. (I think this one cost me $5.)

Yes, I know calorie counting isn’t really a popular method in clean eating. And the truth is, I don’t count calories all that often any more. But coming from a background of being an overeater and binge eater, I personally find that this method really helps get me on track when I feel myself start to slip.

HOW I USE THE MENU PLANNER

I have two different days calorically speaking. Those are the first two days you see in front there. The last three tabs are basically recipes off my site. I have them arranged by how many calories one serving is for any given recipe.

OTHER WAYS TO USE THE MEAL PLANNER

If calorie counting is not your thing, then set up your tabs for daily meal plans and individual meal ideas.

All you have to do is write down what you’ve eaten for the day on a recipe card, stick it in your box, and forget about it. Do this every day for a month, and you’ve got yourself a nice little collection of meal plans for those days when you just cannot figure out what to eat!

And if you need a little help getting started with meal plans, check out my Menus section. That should get you off to a nice start!

About The Gracious Pantry

Who me? I'm Tiffany, a cookbook author, food lover, mom and wannabe Elvis when I'm in the shower or driving in my car.

STANDARD DISCLOSURE: In order to support this blog, I may receive compensation or other types of remuneration for talking about products or services and/or providing a link to said products or services from this blog. However, all opinions are my own and I will only endorse those products or services which I truly feel are of value to my readers. I also use affiliate links in some of my posts for companies such as for Amazon.com, eMeals.com or LaptopLunches.com, among others. I can take no responsibility for how those companies do business however.

Keeping track of your daily meals/plans is a great idea! I’m going to start doing that. Overall, I really would rather not count calories, but sometimes I find it necessary, because I, too, am an overeater by nature. My question is: Do you have any guidelines or sources on HOW MANY calories one should have per day? I’ve read/heard so many different answers, and I’d love your take. I know you’re going to school, so you may have some leads 🙂

Ashley – It’s based on your height, weight and age. I have a calculator on my blog here: https://www.thegraciouspantry.com/health-calculators/ It’s pretty accurate. Overall, you never want to go below 1200 calories. And to lose 1 pound per week, you would need to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories per day. Hope that helps!

Stacy – Meal plans. Over time, I have simply written down what I eat for the day. Then when I reach a day where I don’t know what the heck to eat, all I have to do is turn to my box for ideas. Also, over time I have tweaked them calorie wise so I know how much I’m eating. I don’t typically like to count calories, but as an overeater, I go through phases where I find it to be necessary to regain perspective. Hope that helps!

Ohhh okay (brain fart) I thought it was something where you could put in an ingredient and it could tell you some recipes. But ive been on your site for at least a couple hours reading everything and saw where I can look up stuff by ingredient. Lol so same same thing! I love your site extremely helpful. I love your mans food too my husband tends to fall off more than I do so its nice to get something other than light food. 🙂

I found your website very helpful in my quest for clean eating but I am limited with what fruits I can eat. I can only tolerate grapefruit and pineapple but everything else will not stay down if eaten fresh so what can I do to substitute for fruits?

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The Gracious Pantry is an ever-growing collection of real food recipes and cooking information. My focus is to further support the real food movement and inspire people to store, prep and cook with real food. Read more about Tiffany...